Peterborough, 77 miles north of London, is situated on the river Nen, over which it has a bridge, which was thoroughly repaired in 1790. About the same period an act of parliament was obtained for paving and lighting the place; and since that time considerable improvements have been made in its general appearance; the houses have been modernized, and they are in general well built. Its streets are regular, and the market-place is a handsome and spacious square. Here are two churches, the cathedral and a parish church. Peterborough was originally called Medenhampstead, then Burgh, and afterwards from its wealth, splendour, and privileges of its monastery, it obtained the name of Gilden Burgh, or the Golden City. In reference, however, to the saint to whom its monastery was dedicated, this name was afterwards exchanged for Peterburgh; it is a place of great antiquity, and is famous for its cathedral. The monastery was founded by Peada, eldest son of Penda, king of the Mercians, in the year 655, in the foundation of which he laid such stones that eight yoke of oxen could scarcely draw one of them. In the time of Abbot Hedda, the glory and magnificence of this noble monastery was totally destroyed by fire, and continued burning fifteen days; and Abbot Hedda and his monks were cruelly slain by Earl Hubba. The monastery lay in ruins near 100 years; but in the reign of King Edgar it was rebuilt, and finished in the year 970. The stone for this admired structure was brought from Barnack, near Stamford. This astonishing edifice was singularly famous for a stately front, a curious altar-piece, and a beautiful cloister. The first of the three still remains, supported by three remarkable high arches. This cathedral suffered much in the year 1643, by the Reformers. Among the devastations committed was the destruction of the admired and beautiful windows, of exquisite workmanship, which were adorned with historical passages of scripture and ecclesiastical history; but the cloister windows were the most admired for their curious art and singular variety. In this state of ruin and desolation it continued for the space of eight years, when the damages which it had sustained were in some measure repaired, its ornaments replaced, and so much of the building restored as was necessary for the performance of divine service. In 1660 the exiled dean, Dr. Cosin, returned, and assumed his right of government; and the service of the church was again continued, and a considerable part of its alienated lands recovered.

The style of architecture prevailing in this building is the Norman, of which the circular arch and large, column form the leading characteristics. This, in, the present instance, as well as in others, has erroneously obtained the denomination of Saxon, although no part of the present cathedral appears to have been erected antecedent to the year 1118, at which time the monastery was destroyed by fire. The plan corresponds with that of most other cathedrals; and consists of a nave, with side aisles, a transept, a choir, terminating at the east end semicircalarly, and surrounded with a continuation of the side aisles of the nave, the whole terminated at the east by what is styled the New Building. In the centre, is a tower, rising from the four arches by which the several parts of the structure are connected together. The west front is formed by a portico or porch of three lofty arches, in the centre of which is a small chapel. The following are the dimensions of the building: the length of the whole cathedral externally, including the buttresses, is 471 feet; of the nave, from the west door to; the entrance into the choir 267; of the choir 117; and from the altar to the choir to the east window 38; making in the whole 422 feet. The length of the transept from north to south is 180 feet; the height of the nave from the floor to the ceiling is 81 feet; of the central tower, from the floor to the summit, 135; whilst its whole height externally is 150 feet. The breadth of the nave from the north wall to the south is 78 feet, and the breadth of the west front 156 feet.

The different periods of erection of these parts of the building may be assigned as follow: the choir with its aisles, from the circular extremity at the east to the commencement of the transept on the west, was begun in the year 1118, and completed in 1143: the transept was erected between the years 1155 and 1177; and between the years 1177 and 1193 the nave, with its aisles, were completed as far as the termination of the pillars, which divide the nave and side ailes on the west. About the year 1288 a farther addition was made, when the space between the extreme pillar, and the west door of entrance was finished, forming a projection on each side of the western extremity, and terminated by two towers.

When Henry the Eighth seized on the temporalities, and secularized this convent, he erected it into a bishopric, and ordered the abbey church to be converted into a cathedral; and the government of it entrusted to a bishop, a dean, and six prebendaries, whose jurisdiction extended over the city of Peterborough and the county of Northampton. It was ordained at the same time that the archdeacon of Northampton, who, together with the county, had hitherto been subject to the authority of the Bishop of Lincoln, should in future he subordinate to the jurisdiction of the new bishop. Thus was this great monastery dissolved, and its establishment changed, after having been governed, from its foundation, by a succession of forty-five abbots, who had summons to parliament as early as the reign of Henry the Third; and its revenues, during this period, had increased to the annua sum of 1, 721l. Upon the erection of the episcopal see, these revenues were divided into three parts, two of which were afterwards greatly impaired. One the king reserved for himself, another was assigned to the see for the maintenance of a bishop, and the third formed the endowment of the dean and chapter.

This monastery is remarkable for the interment of two unfortunate queens, viz. Catherine of Spain, first wife of King Henry the Eighth, and Mary Queen of Scots; the former was interred in the year 1535, in the church of the monastery, between two pillars, on the north side of the choir, near the altar. Her hearse was covered with a black velvet pall, crossed with a white cloth of silver; this was afterwards exchanged for one of inferior value, which, with the escutcheons fixed to it, were taken away during the rebellion, in the year 1643.

In the year 1587, the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots was solemnized here: the body of the queen was brought from Fotheringhay Castle, where she was beheaded, and was committed, on the 31st of July, to a vault prepared for it, on the south side of the choir, close to the bishop’s throne, which was immediately closed, without the performance of any religious service: a rich hearse was erected, however, near the grave, and the choir and church were hung with black; and the performance of the funeral service took place on the following afternoon, and was attended by thousands of spectators, and many of the nobility, the heralds, and other officers of the crown. Those of the kingdom of Scotland, who had thus far beheld the fate of their queen, here stopped and bade an adieu to her remains for the last time; but they indignantly refused either to enter the church, or to be present at the last ceremonies. The service was read by the dean, and a sermon was preached by the Bishop of Lincoln, who steering between a fear of Protestantism on one hand, and a respect due to deceased Popery on the other, treated only of the miseries annexed to the vale of mortality; and, in reference to the subject before him, made the following cautious remarks:

"Let us give thanks for the happy dissolution of the high and mighty Princess Mary, late Queen of Scotland, and Dowager of France, of whose life and death at this time I have not much to say, because I was not acquainted with the one, neither was I present at the other. I will not enter into judgment further, but because it hath been signified unto me, that she trusted to be saved by the blood of Christ, we must hope well of her salvation; for, as father Luther was wont to say, many one that liveth a Papist dieth a Protestant."

The body of the queen did not, however, rest long in its grave; for twenty-five years afterwards King James, as a duty owing to the remains of his mother, ordered the translation of her body to Westminster, which was accordingly done in the year 1612. The epitaph which was suspended on the wall over the vault, was afterwards taken down and cast out of the church.

On the west of the cathedral is the Close, which is nearly surrounded by ancient monastic buildings; on the south side is a range of architecture, presenting several fine and interesting parts: in the centre of which is a large tower gateway, communicating with the bishop’s palace. At the west end is the, entrance gateway, from the town; and to the north is the deanery, the entrance to which is through a very rich and highly ornamented gateway. South of the cathedral was a large cloister, 138 by 131 feet, which has been almost wholly demolished.

Exclusive of the cathedral, Peterborough has only one church, which is dedicated to St. John; it is situated near the centre of the city, and contains a large altar-piece, painted by R. K. Porter; also a beautiful monumental tablet, with figures, by Flaxman, R. A.

The situation of the city of Peterborough is exceedingly pleasant, and the buildings, in general, are very neat, and the streets regular. Near the cathedral is a good market-house, over which are held the assizes and sessions for the hundred.

In the city is a good charity school, founded by Thomas Deacon, esq; who endowed it with a freehold estate of above one hundred and sixty pounds per annum. A very stately monument, of the Corinthian order, is erected on the south-east of the altar, in the cathedral church, sacred to the memory of that pious and benevolent man.

Mr. Wortley also, who was formerly one of the representatives of this city, gave a very good house, with extensive premises, as a work-house for the poor, who are chiefly employed in spinning of wool, which is sent to Norwich, and there manufactured. The maintenance of the poor, till within these few years, was very burthensome to the inhabitants, amounting annually to upwards of twelve hundred a year, more than three shillings and sixpence in the pound; but since it has been farmed it does not exceed two shillings and threepence: and the person who farmed it, though formerly a pauper, by his industry gained a decent independence in 11 years.

Here is a plentiful market on Saturday, which is well stored with the best of meat, fish, and fowl, wild and tame, and at more reasonable prices than at many neighbouring markets. Fruit is, in general, plentiful and cheap.

There are two chartered fairs; the first by King Richard, upon the feast of St. Peter, for eight days, but now contracted to two, on the 10th and 11th of July, which is most noted for home-spun cloth, beasts, horses, wood, haberdashery, and toys: the second fair, chartered by King Henry the Sixth, is called Brigg Fair, holden on the 2nd and 3rd of October.

The manufactures here consist of all kinds of hosiery; but its export trade has arisen from large quantities of malt and corn sent down the river. Its imports are mostly coals, and groceries for the consumption of the inland country.

The river Nen, which here divides this county from Huntingdonshire, is navigable to Northampton, 42 miles above Peterborough. There is a bridge over this river leading to the city, but it remains a doubt by whom the bridge should be kept up and repaired. It appears from history, that Abbot Godfrey, elected in the year 1299, built of his own free will the bridge leading to the city, in the fourth year of King Edward the Second. There was an inquisition made concerning the said bridge, which, being gone to decay, the question was how or by whom it should be repaired. To determine this there was a jury impannelled, six out of Northamptonshire, and six out of Huntingdonshire, who, upon examination, returned an ignoramus in the following manner: —‘ That there was none of right bound to repair or sustain the same; ’ but, the king and queen coming to Peterborough, the said bridge was repaired by Abbot Adam, for their passage into the city. The bridge has for many years been kept up by the feoffees, who, much to their credit, in the year 1790, undertook a thorough repair of the same. An act passed about the same time for the paving, lighting, and otherwise improving the city.

Peterborough is governed by a mayor, recorder, and six aldermen, with a common council chosen out of the principal inhabitants. Its jurisdiction, commonly called the Liberty or Soke of Peterborough, is somewhat particular, and extends over 32 towns and hamlets in the neighbourhood; in all which places the civil magistrates, appointed by commission from the king for that purpose, are invested with the same power as judges of assize, and accordingly hold, in this city their quarterly sessions of the peace, oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, and hear and determine all criminal cases, of what nature or kind soever, within themselves. —It sends two members to parliament; the dean and chapter are lords of the manor, and appoint the returning officer. This city is entirely independent in the exercise of its elective franchise; the inhabitants, who pay scot and lot, and who are in number between four and five hundred, have all votes at elections for their members of the legislative assembly. Peterborough gives the title of earl to the family of Mordaunt. This city first sent members to parliament in the year 1547, 1st Edward VI.

The city of Peterborough is situated on the northern side of the river Nen, eighty-one miles and three quarters from London, and contains 950 houses occupied by 4598 inhabitants.

The Great Peterborough Fen, situated about six miles to the north-east of Peterborough, is a tract of fine level, land, containing between six and 7000 acres, of a soil equal, perhaps, to any in the kingdom, and capable of the highest cultivation; it is subject to the depasturage of the cattle, horses, and sheep, of the thirty-two parishes, comprising the Soke of Peterborough. The right of commonage is, however, considered at present to be scarcely of any value: but if this portion of land were converted into private property, and divided into farms of a proper size, great advantages, both of a public and private nature, would necessarily be the result.

William Paley, D. D. was born at Peterborough in July, and baptized, as appears from the register of the cathedral, August 30th, 1743. He was descended from an old and respectable family in Craven, in the West Riding of York shire, where his great-grandfather John, and his grandfather Thomas Paley, successively resided cm a small patrimonial estate at Langcliffe, in the parish of Giggleswick.

Young Paley was educated under his father’s eye. "The dawn of youth is indeed an era in the history of every man’s mind and character, which is only to be omitted by the biographer, when particulars are not to be obtained; "more especially when, as in the present instance, the progress of a superior mind towards maturity deserves to be distinctly traced. At school he soon surpassed his early class-fellows, by the exercise of greater abilities united to a more studious disposition than usually belongs to boys of that age; and, by successive promotions from one class to another, at length obtained pre-eminence over-all. He did not, however, at this time distinguish himself by any sort of compositions, even as school exercises, but was considered a very fair, though by no means an accomplished classical scholar. He was even then more attentive to things than to words, and ardent in the pursuit of knowledge of every, kind. He was curious in making enquiries about mechanism, whenever he had an opportunity of conversing with any workmen, or others capable of affording him satisfactory information. In his mind he was uncommonly active; in his body quite the reverse. He was a bad horseman, and incapable of those exertions which required adroitness in the use of his hands or feet. He consequently never engaged in the ordinary sports of schoolboys; but he was fond of angling, an amusement in which he did not then excel, though his attachment to it seems to have continued through life.

Soon after he had completed his fifteenth year, young Paley accompanied his father to Cambridge for the purpose of admission, and was admitted, November 16, 1758, a sizar of Christ’s college; a college otherwise highly respectable from the members who had done it honour, but sufficiently immortalized by the illustrious name of Milton alone.

Soon after his return to Craven, as the classics alone were taught at Giggleswick school, he went for mathematical instruction to Mr. William Howarth, a teacher of some eminence at Dishforth, near Topcliffe, about three miles from Ripon, under whose care he laid an excellent foundation of knowledge in algebra and geometry. During his residence at this place, the attention of the whole neighbourhood was taken up by the discovery of a human skeleton at Knaresborough, which accidentally led to unfold the circumstance of a murder, committed there fourteen years before. Stimulated by curiosity, he attended the county assizes at York, and was present in the court, August 3rd, 1759, when Eugene Aram, a man of extraordinary learning and acuteness, was tried for the murder of Daniel Clark, and convicted on the evidence of Richard Houseman, an accomplice, and of his own wife. The evidence brought forward on this occasion, and the ingenious defence of the prisoner, seem to have made a forcible impression on young Paley’s mind. When he returned home, a few weeks after this, before his departure to college, he entertained and astonished all around him, by his spirited harangues and judicious remarks on this important trial. Even then, young as he was, he paid particular attention to cases of law, and in speaking of them was singularly fluent and nervous in his language. He seems, indeed, to have attributed the conviction of the prisoner in a great measure to the ingenuity of his defence; for many years after, when he was conversing with a few friends about the lives of some obscure and undeserving persons having been inserted in the Biographia Britannica, and one of the party exclaimed—"Eugene Aram, for instance!" "Nay, "replied he, "a man that has been hanged has some pretension to notoriety, and especially a man who has got himself hanged by his own cleverness, which Eugene Aram certainly did."

In October, 1759, he became a resident member of Christ's college. On the 5th of December he was appointed to one of the scholarships founded by Mr. Carr, and appropriated to students from Giggleswick school. On the following day he was elected a scholar on the foundation of his college, and appointed to the exhibition founded by Sir Walter Mildmay. And in addition to these emoluments, he was elected, May 26, 1761, to the scholarship founded by Mr. Buntry, one of the college tenants.

Dr. Thomas, dean of Ely, was at that time master of Christ’s college; Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Backhouse were the tutors. Mr. Shepherd, who gave lectures in algebra, geometry, and the different branches of natural philosophy, being soon convinced of Mr. Paley's superior attainments, (for he came to college a better mathematician than many are when they leave it, ) excused him from attending his college lectures, with students of his own year; but required his attendance at those public lectures which he afterwards gave as Plumian professor; and occasionally proposed mathematical questions for his solution. Mr. Paley, during this time, regularly attended Mr. Backhouse’s lectures in logic and metaphysics.

Being thus left so much to himself, he applied however most assiduously to those studies required by the university; in the pursuit of which he had frequent opportunity to show the concentration of mind which he possessed in an extraordinary degree. His room, (for he seldom locked his door either by night or day, ) used to be the common rendezvous of the idle young men of his college; yet, notwithstanding all their noise and nonsense, he might be often seen in one corner, as composed and attentive to what he was reading, as if he had been alone. But as, besides the interruption which such loungers must at times have given him, he was remarkable for indulging himself in bed till a very late hour in the morning, and for being much in company after dinner, at tea, and at a coffee-house at nine o’clock in the evening, it is probable that he was more indebted to observation and reflection than to books for the general improvement of his mind.

In the year 1705, during one of his visits to Cambridge, Dr. Paley, in the course of a conversation on the subject, gave the following account of the early part of his own academical life, and it is here given, on the authority and in the very words of a gentleman who was present at the time, as a striking instance of the peculiar frankness with which he was in the habit of relating the adventures of his youth.

"I spent the first two years of my under-graduate-ship happily but unprofitably. I was constantly in society, where we were not immoral, but idle and rather expensive. At the commencement of my third year, however, after having left the usual party at rather a late hour in the evening, I was awakened at five in the morning by one of my companions, who stood at my bed-side and said—' Paley, I have been thinking what a dammed fool you are. I could do nothing, probably, were I to try, and can afford the life I lead: you could do every thing, and cannot afford it. I have had no sleep during the whole night on account of these reflections, and am now come solemnly to inform you, that if you persist in your indolence, I must renounce your society. ’"

"I was so struck"—Dr. Paley continued—"with "the visit and the visitor, that I lay in bed great part of the day, and formed my plan. I ordered my bed- maker to prepare my fire every evening, in order that it might be lighted by myself. I arose at five, read during the whole of the day, except such hours as chapel and hall required, allotting to each portion of time it's peculiar branch of study; and just before the closing of the gates (nine o’clock), I went to a neighbouring coffee-house, where I constantly regaled upon a mutton chop and a dose of milk punch. And thus on taking my bachelor’s degree, I became senior wrangler."

Thus fortunately was Dr. Paley roused to a full exertion of his faculties, before his habits were completely formed; and to this singular adventure may, perhaps, be attributed, not only his successful labours, as a college tutor, but the invaluable productions of his pen.

Mr. Paley, being generally careless about his dress, and sometimes even remarkably inattentive to it, attracted more than common notice, when he appeared in the public schools to keep his first act, with his hair full dressed, and in a deep ruffled shirt and new silk stockings; which aided by his gestures, his action, and his whole manner, when earnestly engaged in the debate, excited no small mirth in the spectators. This was his first appearance before the university as a disputant, and he acquitted himself with such unwonted ability, that the schools were afterwards invariably crowded, whenever he was expected to dispute.

On the 10th of October, 1762, Mr. Jebb, fellow of Peterhouse, and Mr. Watson, fellow and tutor of Trinity college, were invested with the office of moderators for the first time: an office, the duties of which, together or separately, they afterwards repeatedly discharged with the highest celebrity. Soon after this appointment, Mr. Watson sent Mr. Paley an act. He was prepared with a mathematical question, and referring to Johnson’s Questiones Philosophicae, a book then common in the university, in which the subjects usually disputed upon in the schools, and the names of the authors who had written on each side, were contained, he fixed upon two others, as not having been proposed to his knowledge before: the one against capital punishments, the other against the eternity of hell torments. As soon as it was rumoured amongst the heads of the university, that Mr. Paley, whose abilities were well known, had proposed such a question, the master of his college was desired to interfere and put a stop to it. Dr. Thomas consequently summoned him to the lodge, and objected, in strong terms, to both his questions, but insisted upon his relinquishing the last. Mr. Paley immediately went to the moderator, and acquainted him with this peremptory command. Mr. Watson was indignant that "the heads of colleges should interfere in a matter, which belonged solely," as he said, "to him; for he was the judge of the propriety or impropriety of the questions sent to him." "Are you, Sir," continued he, "independent of your college? if you are, these shall be the questions for your act." Mr. Paley told him that "he should be sorry to offend the college; and therefore wished to change the last question." "Very well," replied the moderator, "the best way then to satisfy the scruples of these gentlemen, will be for you to defend the eternity of hell torments;" which, changing his thesis to the affirmative, he actually did.

Mr. Paley kept this act with uncommon credit. Mr. Frere of Caius college, a young gentleman of singular fame as a disputant, particularly on metaphysical or moral subjects, confident in his own abilities, and fluent in speaking Latin, was his first opponent, and the strenuous exertions of such an adversary gave full scope to the display of his extraordinary talents. Indeed he always acquitted himself with great ability in his several disputations, either as a respondent or opponent, and received the highest compliments from the different moderators under whom he kept.

Nor did Mr, Paley disappoint the general expectation of the university, when he took his degree of bachelor of arts, in January 1763, but was senior wrangler of the year. In the senate-house, as in the schools, Mr. Frere was his most formidable competitor, and gained the second honours. Mr. Paley was probably more indebted for the first, to the quickness and strength of his conceptions, and to a promptitude of delivery, in which he always excelled, than to the superior extent of his mathematical acquirements.

Soon after taking his bachelor’s degree, Mr. Paley was engaged, on the recommendation of Mr. Shepherd, as second assistant in a great academy at Greenwich, kept by Mr. Bracken, and chiefly resorted to by young men intended for the army and navy, where his department of teaching was in the Latin language. His classical were indeed far inferior to his mathematical attainments, but with his strong talents, it may be readily supposed, that, when daily employed in reading and teaching the best authors, he soon supplied any former deficiency. His leisure hours were frequently occupied in rambling about the metropolis, where a variety of new and interesting objects engaged his notice, and gave full scope of observation to his active mind.

On him nothing was lost, and, as he was equally ardent in the pursuit of knowledge or of recreation, bis residence at Greenwich, at this important period of his life, must have been highly advantageous to him. He certainly enjoyed a good play very much, and used frequently to attend the theatres, particularly Drury-lane, when Mr. Garrick, returning from the continent, re-appeated upon the stage. He generally went into the pit, and seated himself as near to the orchestra as he could. But his chief amusement in London seemed to arise from attending the different courts of justice, the Old Bailey in particular: and there, from his frequent attendance, and sagacity of observation, he acquired a clear and accurate knowledge of the criminal law. It is interesting, at all times, to trace the progress of a favourite inclination in youth, when leading to any laudable pursuit; more especially in a man like Mr. Paley. The proceedings in the courts at Lancaster had made a forcible impression on his mind; and the trial of Eugene Aram, no doubt, added strength to a propensity, in which his frequent visits to the metropolis, at this time, enabled him to indulge. In the midst of all this, he was perfectly satisfied with his lot, and found himself so happy in his situation at Greenwich, that he has been often heard to say, "the rank of first assistant in the academy was then the highest object of his ambition."

In 1765, Mr. Paley became a candidate for one of the prizes given annually by the representatives of the University of Cambridge to senior bachelors, the authors of the two best dissertations in Latin prose. The subject proposed was a comparison between the Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, with respect to the influence of each on the morals of a people. Mr. Paley, at all times averse to useless austerity, and a lover of rational enjoyment, naturally took the Epicurean side. His dissertation, first composed in English, and afterward translated by himself into Latin, though far from elegant in point of style, is fraught with sound perspicuous reasoning, and strong manly sense. Evincing at once extensive reading, and a maturity of reflection far beyond his years, this early performance discovers no slight presages of his future eminence, and many characteristic features of his mind. In discussing the opposite characters of these rival systems of philosophy, he strenuously vindicates Epicurus against those calumnies, with which the ignorance or misrepresentation of his opponents have unjustly charged him, and maintains that his doctrines were favourable to none but rational pleasures, and the true happiness of mankind. The disciples of Zeno, on the other hand, he contends, whilst affecting an elevation of virtue inconsistent with human nature, too often, in their practice, descended to the most flagitious of crimes.

This was perhaps a singular instance of a prize- dissertation in Latin, being sent up to the judges, with long notes in English. The reasons alleged for this, in a short preface, were the obscurity of a dead language, and the difficulty of ascertaining the exact meaning of words and phrases. This circumstance, however, though thus explained, had nearly proved fatal to its success. For when the merits of the several competitors came to be discussed by the vicechancellor and heads of colleges, by whom the prizes are awarded; one of the judges strongly objected to the essay on this very account, observing that "he supposed the author had been assisted by his father, some country clergyman, who having forgotten his Latin, had written the notes in English." Dr. Powell, master of St. John’s college, spoke warmly in its favour, insisting that "it contained more matter than was to be found in all the others: that it would be unfair to reject such a dissertation merely on suspicion; since the notes were applicable to the subject, and showed the author to be a young man of the most promising abilities and extensive reading." This opinion seems to have been decisive, in turning the balance in Mr. Paley’s favour, to whom the first prize was accordingly adjudged.

As soon as he was informed of his success, he wrote to Mr. Stoddart the following characteristic letter, without either date or name: —"Io triumphe! Chamberlayne is second."—Mr. Chamberlayne was a fellow of King’s college, was reckoned one of the best classical scholars of that society, and had gained the first prize, as middle bachelor, in the preceding year.

Being ordained a deacon at the proper age, he engaged himself as curate to Dr. Hinchliffe, then vicar of Greenwich, and afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. Soon after this, he left the academy in consequence of a disagreement with Mr. Bracken, regarding the distribution of some money sent by the parents of the pupils, as presents to the different assistants; in which distribution he thought himself ill used. He continued, however, still to officiate in the church of Greenwich.

Mr. Paley was elected a fellow on the foundation of Christ’s college, June 24th, 1766, an appointment worth about one hundred pounds a year, at that time. In consequence of this, he returned to a residence in the university, took his degree of master of arts, and engaged in the business of private tuition. He was afterwards engaged as an assistant in the public tuition of his college: and, at the general ordination for the diocese of London, holden, at St. James’s chapel, December 21st, 1767, was ordained a priest by Bishop Terrick.

On the translation of Dr. Cornwallis, from the see of Litchfield to the primacy, in August 1768, Mr. Blackhouse, who had been for many years his chaplain, resigned his situation as tutor of Christ’s college. Dr. Shepherd now held the tuition alone; but transferred the active duties of his station to his assistants, Mr. Paley and Mr. Law. This latter gentleman, son of the master of Peterhouse, had distinguished himself as second wrangler, and first chancellor’s medalist, in 1766. The talents and assiduity of these able scholars, aided by the plausibility of manners and powerful connexions of their superior, soon raised the celebrity of their college to an unprecedented height.

At the installation of the Duke of Grafton as chancellor of the university, at the commencement, July 1st, 1769, Mr. Grimstone, a fellow commoner of Christ’s college, and pupil of Mr. Paley’s, recited in the senate-house some English verses, written for the occasion by Mr. Law, in which the new Archbishop of Canterbury, then present, was mentioned in very flattering terms. At the election of officers in the following October, Mr. Law was appointed moderator, and, December 18th, 1770, was elected a fellow of his college. Mr. Paley was at this time serving the office of taxor in the university, and was soon after appointed one of the Whitehall preachers, his name appearing for the first time, in the register of the royal chapel there, April 21, 1771.

Early in that year, Mr. Paley and Mr. Law, whose exertions and ability had contributed so much to the prosperity of Christ’s college, were united with Dr. Shepherd in the tuition; their names first, appearing in the admission-book on the 13th of March. As yet, however, they only shared one half of the emoluments between them, Dr. Shepherd retaining the other. But this being by no means adequate either to their merit or importance, they in the following year insisted upon a trisection, as Mr. Law called it, or equal division of the whole; with which the senior tutor, after some opposition, was obliged to comply.

Mr. Paley lectured on metaphysics, morals, and the Greek Testament, and, after he had been some years a tutor, on divinity; Mr. Law on the mathematics and natural philosophy. Mr. Paley was a most able and popular lecturer, excelling in the art of adapting himself to the understanding of his pupils, and elucidating the most abstruse points by a frequent and happy reference to the images of common life. It is a too common practice amongst lecturers, attending more to the subject of their discourse than the character of their audience, to make a formal harangue in their own manner, which, however learned and ingenious, is little suited to the capacities of youth, and therefore listened to with apathy or disgust. Mr. Paley, on the other hand, contrived to interest the minds of his pupils, and to render his lectures at once instructive and entertaining, by pursuing a very different plan; and his manner cannot be too much studied and admired.

His delivery was fluent, his language strong and perspicuous, though mixed sometimes with provincial, but expressive words and phrases, which, however, were purposely used, as uncommon and likely to be remembered. Whilst his similitudes and illustrations were apt and familiar, his general character was also strikingly impressive. He made it a principal object to excite the doubts and solicitude of his pupils, before he proceeded in the disquisition: for he soon discovered that it required more pains to make young minds perceive the difficulty than understand the solution, and that unless some curiosity was raised before he attempted to satisfy it, bis labour would be lost. He usually commenced his lecture by questioning one of his pupils on some point in that of the preceding day, to remove any misapprehension of what he had already inculcated, and to fix the whole more firmly on their minds.

The Hyson Club, a society where the members met to drink tea and pass the evening in rational conversation, had been established at Cambridge, by the wranglers of 1757, when Dr. Waring gained the first, and Mr. Jebb the second honours of the year. Several of the highest characters in the university were already enrolled amongst its members, when Mr. Paley became an associate, soon after his establishment in the tuition of Christ’s college. No particular subjects of discussion were proposed at their meetings, but accident, or the taste of individuals, naturally led to topics, in which literary men might fairly unbend themselves from severer pursuits. In a debate one evening, on the justice and expediency of making some alteration in the ecclesiastical constitution of this country, for the relief of tender consciences, Dr. Gordon, fellow of Emanuel college, and afterwards precentor of Lincoln, an avowed tory in religion and politics, when vehemently opposing the arguments of Mr. Jebb, a strenuous supporter of all such improvements, exclaimed with his usual heat, "You mean, Sir, to impose upon us a new church government. ""You are mistaken, Sir," said Mr. Paley, "Jebb only wants to ride his own horse, not to force you to get up behind him."

The elevation of Dr. Edmund Law to the see of Carlisle, naturally led to the promotion of his son, who, having obtained a prebendal stall in the cathedral of that diocese, and the living of Warkworth, resigned his engagements in the university, in June 1774. At this period the reputation of Christ’s college had been raised to an unexampled pitch by the united exertions of the tutors; and it was no less distinguished by the number than by the opulence and rank of its students. Mr. Law was succeeded in his department by Mr. Parkinson, fellow of the college, who had been senior wrangler and Smith’s prizeman in 1760. Mr. Paley continued at his post two years after the departure of his friend. In addition to his engagements as a public tutor, he had all along derived considerable emoluments from bestowing some hours daily on the instruction of private pupils.

The reputation which he had so deservedly acquired is said to have induced the late Earl Camden, on sending his son, the present earl, to the university, to offer Mr. Paley the situation of his private tutor, which other engagements led him to decline. Amongst the many high proofs of esteem and approbation which he might through life receive, this decisive testimony of the confidence of a great constitutional lawyer can by no means be considered the least; and as the acceptance of this offer might have led, by honourable patronage, to the highest clerical dignity, the refusal of it, shows that Mr. Paley then sought the advancements of his fortunes by perseverance in the regular duties of his profession alone.Stolen from Fore bears

He held, indeed, all those little arts of underhand address, by which patronage and preferment are so frequently pursued, in supreme contempt. He was of a nature to root; for that was his own expressive term, afterwards much used in the university, to denote the sort of practice alluded to. He one day humorously proposed at some social meeting, that a certain cotemporary fellow of his college, at that time, distinguished for his elegant and engaging manners, and who has since attained no small eminence in the church of England should be appointed professor of rooting.

The Bishop of Carlisle, after providing for his son, made Mr. Paley the chief object of bis patronage, and presented him to the rectory of Musgrove in Westmoreland, a living then worth about eighty pounds a year. He was inducted to this little benefice, May 28, 1775, and afterwards passed much of his leisure during the long vacation, between Rose Castle, and Mr. Law's prebendal house at Carlisle. In the autumn of this year he attached himself to Miss Jane Hewitt, a handsome and pleasing young lady of that city, to whom his suit was successfully preferred. He returned however to Cambridge at the usual time.

In 1776, a new edition of Bishop Law’s Reflections on the Life and Character of Christ, originally published in the Considerations on the Theory of Religion, was given in a separate form at Cambridge, for the benefit of academical youth. To this treatise some brief Observations on the Character and Example of Christ were added, as a summary of its contents, with an Appendix on the Morality of the Gospel, both from Mr. Paley’s pen.

Mr. Paley preached for the last time at Whitehall, April 21; his labours in the university terminated in the month of May, and, on June 6th he was married to Miss Hewitt, in the church of St. Mary’s, Carlisle, where his friend Mr. Law performed the ceremony. On the 29th of the same month, he was succeeded in his fellowship by Mr. Majendie, late Bishop of Chester; and retired into the diocese of Carlisle, leaving behind him amongst his friends and pupils, the well-earned sentiments of esteem and regret.

Striking as the contrast must appear between his situation in the university and amongst his present parishioners, he frequently observed, that at Musgrove he had passed some of the happiest days of his life. Satisfied with the small earnest of patronage, which he had thus received, no cares about his future prospects disturbed the serenity of his mind. The situation of this pleasant village, on the banks of the river Eden, allowed him to indulge himself frequently in angling, the favourite amusement of his youth. So partial indeed was he to a sport, which notwithstanding the opinion of honest Walton, can scarcely be reconciled to either reason or humanity, that he, at one time, kept a journal of his exploits, and had afterwards his portrait taken with his rod and line.

At this time Mr. Paley, as he afterwards frequently declared, found himself, notwithstanding his habits of observation and enquiry, very deficient in that practical knowledge, which can only be obtained from an active intercourse with the mass of mankind. Being induced to undertake the management of a small farm, as a source at once of profit and of occupation, he calculated too little on his own want of acquaintance with husbandry, and the different habits of his earlier life. "I soon found," said he, when alluding to the failure of his project, "that this would never do: I was a bad farmer, and almost invariably lost. "

The liberality of his benefactor, however, was not confined to a single gift. Before the close of the same year, December 2, 1776, he was inducted into the vicarage of Dalston in Cumberland, in the neighbourhood of Rose Castle, worth ninety pounds per annum. In 1777, Mr. Law was promoted to the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and, from the age and infirmities of his father had now the chief management of all the affairs of the diocese, as well as a leading influence with the dean and chapter.

On the 15th of July, 1777, Mr. Paley preached at the visitation of the bishop, in the cathedral church of Carlisle, a discourse, which he afterwards published with the title of "Caution recommended in the use and application of Scripture language."

On the 5th of September he resigned the rectory of Musgrove, and, on the 10th of the same month, was inducted to the more valuable vicarage of Appleby, estimated at about two hundred pounds a year; between which place and Dalston he now divided his time, residing alternately six months at each.

On the 16th of June, 1780, he was installed a prebendary of the fourth stall in the cathedral of Carlisle, worth about four hundred pounds per annum, and thus became the coadjutor of his friend Mr. Law in the chapter.

Mr. Paley, as chaplain to the Bishop of Carlisle, preached an admonitory sermon, at the general ordination holden by his lordship at Rose Castle, on the 29th of July, 1781.

Mr. Yates died soon after this, in the eighty-first year of his age; on which occasion Mr. Paley wrote the just and striking eulogy, inscribed on the marble monument erected to this eminent teacher’s memory in Appleby church. His own connection with that place terminated in the following year, when, in consequence of Mr. Law's promotion to an Irish bishopric, he was appointed Archdeacon of Carlisle, and divided his future residence between Dalston and his prebendal house.

He was installed in his new dignity, August 5th, 1782. The archdeaconry is, in fact, a mere sinecure, the duties usually attached to that office being here performed by the chancellor, whose power extends through the whole diocese. The rectory of Great Salkeld, worth one hundred and twenty pounds per annum, is always annexed to the archdeaconry, and has been so from the foundation of the see.

Immediately after this, Mr. Paley went with his friend to Dublin, where, September 21, he preached the sermon in the Castle chapel, at his consecration to the bishopric of Clonfert and Kilmacdaugh; and afterwards accompanied him to his episcopal residence, on the great river Shannon in Galway, one of the least civilized portions of the island. In the course of his journey he was no idle observer, as his remarks after his return evinced, of the peculiar wretchedness of the lower Irish, and of that ingenuity in eluding taxes, at once injudicious and oppressive, by which that poor neglected people were then, if not even now, unhappily distinguished.

A report has been long in circulation, that Mr. Paley, being appointed to preach before the university of Cambridge, on the day when Mr. Pitt, after his elevation to the premiership in 1784, made his first appearance at St. Mary’s, chose this singular but appropriate text—"There is a lad here, who hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?" John vi. 9. A lady who had seen this story in a newspaper, once asked the facetious divine if it was true. "Why no, madam," replied he, "I certainly never preached such a sermon; I was not at Cambridge at the time; but I remember that, one day, when I was riding out with a friend in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and we were talking about the bustle and confusion which Mr. Pitt’s appearance would then cause in the university, I said, that if I had been there, and asked to preach on the occasion I would have taken that passage for my text. "

Whilst others were rooting for preferment, Mr. Paley was engaged in the composition of an important work, the general outlines of which had been delivered to his pupils at Christ’s college. The Bishop of Clonfert, to whom the merit of his friend’s lectures was well known, and who justly thought that those on morals, in particular, might be expanded into a most useful treatise for public instruction, had strenuously urged their publication in an improved form. Mr. Paley at first suggested, as an objection, the little attention usually paid to such subjects, and the risk of publishing a book which might not sell: but when he found himself in possession of a competent income from his patron’s kindness, he no longer hesitated to employ his leisure in the execution of this great design. When the manuscript was ready for the press, Mr. Paley would have sold it to Mr. Faulder of Bond- street, the publisher of his occasional sermons, for three hundred pounds, but he refused to give more than two hundred and fifty. Whilst the treaty was pending, a bookseller from Carlisle, happening to call on an eminent publisher in Paternoster-row, was commissioned by him to offer Mr. Paley one thousand pounds for the copy-right of his work. The bookseller, on his return to Carlisle, duly executed the commission, which was communicated without delay to the Bishop of Clonfert, who being at that time in London, had undertaken the management of the affair. "Never did I suffer so much anxious fear," said Mr. Paley, in relating the circumstance, "as on this occasion, lest my friend should have concluded the bargain with Mr. Faulder before my letter could reach him." Luckily he had not, but on receiving the letter, went immediately into Bond-street and made this new demand. Mr. Faulder, though in no small degree surprised and astonished at the advance, agreed to pay the sum required before the bishop left the house. "Little did I think," said Mr. Paley in allusion to this affair, "that I should ever make a thousand pounds by any book of mine;" a strong proof of unassuming merit; but after the offer abovementioned, he was entitled to have asked a still larger sum.

The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, or, as it was at first entitled, the Principles of Morality and Politics, appeared in 1785, in one volume quarto, dedicated in a very elegant address, to his patron the Bishop of Carlisle. The partiality of friendship was not disappointed in the success of this excellent work, which, notwithstanding a few objectionable passages, soon established the author’s reputation. It passed through fifteen editions during his life; in which, amidst many verbal alterations, there are none which materially affect the sense. Whilst he makes no pretensions to perfect originality, he claims to be something more than a mere compiler. The mode of reasoning and illustrations are generally his own; but he has borrowed much, as he fairly acknowledges, from preceding writers, and particularly from the desultory but ingenious treatise of Mr. Abraham Tucker, "The light of Nature pursued."

On the death of Dr. Burn, the well-known author of the Justice of the Peace and Ecclesiastical Law, November 20th, 1785, Mr. Paley was appointed chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. The chancellorship has been generally valued at one hundred pounds per annum, but there are fees of office, which might probably make it more.

The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy were introduced, by the late most excellent Mr. Jones, senior tutor of Trinity college, when discharging the duties of moderator in the University of Cambridge, in 1786 and 1787, as a standard book, in the disputations in the schools, and in the subsequent examination for a bachelor’s degree.

The venerable Bishop of Carlisle died at Rose Castle, August 14th, 1787, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Mr. Paley afterwards drew up a short memoir, the only account of his life hitherto given to the public, which has been inserted to Hutchinson’s History of Cumberland.

Whilst Mr. Paley officiated as his lordship’s examining chaplain, he had noticed the usefulness of Collyer’s Sacred Interpreter, and had recommended it to those, who were preparing for deacon’s orders within the diocese of Carlisle. As that work had now become scarce, he caused it to be republished at Carlisle in a cheap form, and annexed to it a short analysis of the book of Revelations, chiefly taken from the learned dissertations of Bishop Newton, and the commentary of Mr. Daubuz.

In 1789, when Dr. Beadon was promoted to the see of Gloucester, the mastership of Jesus college, Cambridge, was offered to Mr. Paley, in a very handsome manner, by the Bishop of Ely (Dr. Yorke). The conduct of Bishop Yorke on this occasion deserves the highest approbation, since there had been no previous connection between the parties, and he must have been actuated solely by a wish to promote the interest of the university, and reward the merit of one of her ablest sons. The place itself, indeed, is more honourable than lucrative, but is tenable with any other preferment, and desirable in many respects. Mr. Paley, however, to the undoubted Joss and regret of the whole university, declined the offer, though strongly urged to accept it by Sir John Wilson and some other friends. The motives of his refusal have never been clearly ascertained, nor is it known that he gave any reason for it even to those with whom he was most intimate.

In 1790, Mr. Paley published his Horae Paulinae, or the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul evinced, by a comparison of the Epistles which bear his name, with the Acts of the Apostles, and with one another, which he dedicated to Dr. Law, then Bishop of Killalla and Achonry, in a short and affectionate address. In this, his first attempt from the press to demonstrate the authenticity of the Christian Scriptures, he shows, by a comparison of several indirect allusious and references in the Acts and the Epistles, that, independent of all collateral testimony, their undesigned coincidence affords the strongest proof of their genuineness, and of the reality of the transactions to which they relate. The principal circumstances in the history of St. Paul being thus established, tend, by a necessary inference, to confirm the substantial truth of what is otherwise recorded of the founder of Christianity, and to repel some of the objections on which the adversaries of that revelation so confidently rely.

In the same year, at his annual visitation, Mr. Paley delivered a charge to the clergy of the diocese of Carlisle, on the use and propriety of local and occasional preaching; "submitting to them," as chancellor, "that species of counsel and exhortation, which," he observes, "they would with more propriety, perhaps, have received from him in the character of their archdeacon, if the functions of that office had remained entire."

Mrs. Paley died, after a long illness, in May 1791, leaving four sons and four daughters.

In February, 1792, Mr. Paley presided at a meeting of the inhabitants of Carlisle, holden for the purpose of petitioning parliament for abolition of the slave trade, and introduced, in an able and convincing speech, a series of spirited resolutions against this impolitic and inhuman traffic.

In an interview with Mr. Clarkson, soon after this meeting, he pointed out the necessity of forming, on some extensive plan, an establishment in Africa, with a view to civilize the natives. This object he seemed to have had much at heart, as a debt due to a much injured people, and as one that could be practically paid. He was favourable to the idea of carrying over, from the United States of America, several little colonies of free negroes, who were able to procure certificates of their good character, and willing to go. These were to be settled, by the British government, in different parts of the country, to have grants of land, and be recognized as British subjects, that they might serve as a pattern to the natives, in their several vicinities, by leading a civilized life. A similar plan had been already suggested by Mr. Pitt, but the idea had occurred to Mr. Paley about the same time.

Mr. Paley, at the request of the managers of the Sunday-schools in Carlisle, had compiled, some years before, a small work, entitled, "The Young Christian instructed in Reading, and the Principles of Religion, for the use of those Schools." This little book, in which plain usefulness could be his only object, gave rise to a very singular charge of plagiarism, in the Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1792, from Mr. Robertson, the author of a much more elegant production of the same kind. Mr. Paley, who laid no claims to originality in his compilation, except for a short history of Jesus Christ, gave in the same miscellany for April, a reply which has been much admired as a masterpiece of neat, good-humoured refutation.

On the 7th of May, he was inducted to the vicarage of Addingham, near Great Salkeld, a living worth about one hundred and forty pounds a year, on the presentation of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle.

During the political ferment, which led to the interference of Great Britain in the war of the French revolution, Mr. Paley published a short tract, entitled, Reasons for Contentment, addressed to the Labouring Classes, and re-published, as a separate essay, the chapter on the British constitution, from his Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy; for which he has been accused of abandoning his former sentiments, and giving countenance to the delusions of the day. On an impartial examination, however, his conduct will appear perfectly consistent, and to have originated in a very fair and dispassionate view of the state of the public mind.

Dr. Vernon, a prelate distinguished by the most pleasing affability of maimers, had succeeded, in 1790, amidst a round of ecclesiastical promotions, to the see of Carlisle. Mr. Paley vacated Dalston, March 15th, 1793, on being collated, by his new diocesan, to the vicarage of Stanwix, in the more immediate neighbourhood of Carlisle, to which he was inducted on the 15th of April. Being afterwards asked, by a clerical friend, why he quitted Dalston, he answered with a frankness peculiar to him, for he knew no deceit: — "Why, Sir, I had two or three reasons for taking Stanwix in exchange: first, it saved me double house-keeping, as Stanwix was within a twenty minute’s walk of my house in Carlisle; secondly, it was fifty pounds a year more in value; and thirdly, I began to find my stock of sermons coming over again too fast."

Mr. Paley was at this time engaged in preparing for the press his View of the Evidences of Christianity, which appeared early in 1794, in three volumes 12 vo., and was soon after republished in two volumes 8 vo. The direct historical testimony for the authenticity of the Christian Revelation, already adduced by the indefatigable Lardner, is admirably selected and arranged in this important work: and the general argument drawn up with great clearness and felicity.

The Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus, a contemporary fellow of Christ's college, and a defender of the Truth and Divine Origin of the Christian Revelation, took the lead, and instituted him, August 4, 1794, to the prebend of Pancras, in the cathedral of St. Paul’s.

Soon after this, he was promoted to the sub-deanery of Lincoln, a preferment of about seven hundred pounds a year, by Dr. Pretyman, bishop of that diocese, who, being allowed the disposal of his vacated prebend in the cathedral church of Carlisle, conferred it on his old friend, Mr. William Sheepshanks, his lordship’s private tutor at college. Mr. Paley was installed, as sub-dean, in the cathedral church of Lincoln, January 24, 1795, and from thence proceeded to Cambridge, to take his degree of doctor in divinity. As he was now a master of arts of more than twelve years standing, and a non-gremial, the intermediate degree of bachelor in divinity was dispensed with; and no other exercises were required of him by the laws of the university, but a Conscio ad Clerum and an English sermon.

After reading himself in, as a prebend, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, March 8th, Dr. Paley, for he now assumed that title, immediately proceeded to Bishop Wearmouth, and took possession of his valuable cure. He was inducted, March 14th, by Mr. Farrer, the highly respectable rector of Sunderland, with whom he had been many years acquainted, and who, resigning that rectory soon after, succeeded him in the vicarage of Stanwix. The rectory house at Bishop Wearmouth is one of the best parsonages in the kingdom, and, with the out-offices and adjacent grounds, had been left by the last incumbent in a very improved state.

He returned to Cambridge against the commencement, to complete his doctor's degree, and on Saturday, July 5, preached before the university, his Sermon on the Dangers incidental to the Clerical Character, which he published soon after, with a short dedication to the vice-chancellor and heads of colleges, as a testimony of affection and respect.

Soon after Dr. Paley’s establishment at Bishop-Wearmouth, some of the principal land-owners in that parish, wishing to remove even the probability of future dispute, offered him an annual compensation for the tythes. As, upon inspecting the accounts of his predecessor, he found this proposal, to all appearance, fair and equitable, he readily acquiesced, and granted them a lease for his life; and thus, by sacrificing any eventual interest of his own in the agricultural improvement of the parish, avoided one great source of disquietude and vexation. As a writer, he had already reprobated tythes, as "noxious to cultivation and improvement," and recommended "their conversion into corn-rents, as a practicable and beneficial alteration, in which the interest of all parties might be equitably adjusted;" and he now acted in strict conformity to these principles, "leaving to the industry of his parishioners, its full operation and entire reward." By this agreement, the lessees were generally enabled to return from sixpence to eighteen pence in the pound, on the annual amount of the great tythes, to those who were punctual in their payments, whilst they seldom attended much to the small. Dr. Paley, on the other hand, found himself perfectly at ease by this arrangement, and, when he heard of a bad crop, used to say—"Ay, ay, now, I am well off; my tythes are safe, and I have nothing to do with them, or to think about them."

He also granted long leases of his glebe lands, and particularly of a limestone quarry to the old tenant, upon very moderate terms. From the great rise in landed property, which took place immediately after, his tenants had very advantageous bargains: a circumstance to which he sometimes, indeed, alluded in conversation, but without the least marks of dissatisfaction or regret.

Dr. Paley was married, December 14, 1795, to Miss Dobinson of Carlisle, a lady with whose worth he was well acquainted, from an intimacy of several years. Soon after his marriage, he set out for Lincoln, where, as sub-dean, he was obliged to reside three months annually, at the commencement of the year. Between this city and Bishop-Wearmouth he now principally divided his time, making occasional excursions into Craven and Cumberland on his route.

He visited a good deal amongst his neighbours, both at Lincoln and Bishop-Wearmouth, and entertained company in a handsome, but by no means ostentatious style. He frequently mixed in card parties, and was considered a skilful player at whist; but he would, at all times, readily forego the game for conversation with an intelligent companion. A lady once observed to him, at a card-table at Lincoln, "that the only excuse for their playing was that it served to kill time. "—"The best defence possible, madam," replied he, "though time will in the end kill us."

In the summer of 1801, Dr. Paley held a visitation of the clergy of the diocese of Carlisle, officiating as chancellor for his friend professor Carlyle, who having accompanied the Earl of Elgin in his embassy to Constantinople in 1799, had been since actively engaged in literary travels and researches in the Levant. Dr. Paley was highly gratified with the correspondence of his friend, during this interesting tour; "the remarks of a sensible man on foreign countries being always, "as he said, "worth attending to, especially when written on the spot." In the autumn of this year, he was visited by the intelligent traveller himself, at Bishop-Wearmouth, immediately after his return; when, besides every other object of rational curiosity, Dr. Paley could scarcely fail to be interested, in the advantages which might accrue to biblical and general literature, from the researches and projects of his friend.

About the same time he was visited by Mr. Macintosh (Now Sir James Macintosh, late Recorder of Bombay. ), the celebrated author of the Vindiciae Gallicae, with a letter of introduction from Sir Edward Law. The fascinating powers of conversation, by which this gentleman is so highly distinguished, and the curious information which he was able to communicate, particularly about the great historical design of Mr. Fox, amply rewarded the hospitality of Dr. Paley, and left on his mind a strong impression of the talents of his accomplished guest.

A violent return of a nephalgic complaint (which he had previously laboured under) prevented Dr. Paley from keeping his annual residence at Lincoln, in 1802. The writer of these memoirs had, at that time, occasionally the honour of passing an hour with him, by invitation, during some of his intervals of freedom from excruciating pain. His mind was still calm and vigorous, his vivacity unimpaired, and he conversed with his usual energy on various topics.

In May, when he was so far recovered, as to bear the fatigues of travelling, Dr. Paley was induced to try the Buxton waters, by the advice of his physician, Dr. Clarke of Newcastle, who, himself afflicted with a violent disorder, soon after followed him to that place. There they were joined by Dr. Currie of Liverpool, who met Dr. Clark by appointment, and who had been previously acquainted with Dr. Paley at Carlisle.

The waters at Buxton having effected a partial restoration of his health, Dr. Paley returned to Bishop-Wearmouth after an absence of two months.

Soon after this he published his Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existences and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the appearances of Nature.

Dr, Paley resigned the archdeaconry of Carlisle and the rectory of Great Salkeld in 1804.

Dr. Paley still entered into the pleasures of society with his wonted zest; and his conversation was as animated and impressive as ever, when Mr. Meadley saw him, for the last time, in December 1804. His valuable life was then drawing fast towards a close; and the powers of nature, gradually exhausted by repeated sufferings, were becoming daily less able to resist the force of his inveterate disease. Yet he kept his annual residence at Lincoln in 1805, and returned to Bishop-Wearmouth about the beginning of May. Soon after his arrival there, he experienced a most violent attack, in which the usual remedies were found ineffectual. Human skill was therefore vain; his appetite failing him, he was no longer able to take the requisite support; but soon sunk under the accumulated influence of debility and disease. His sight is supposed to have failed a few days before his death, whilst his other faculties remained unimpaired. Perhaps no man ever preserved greater self-possession and composure, during his concluding scene. The evening of his life was clouded with no displeasing recollections, no vain anxieties, no fond regrets: he had enjoyed the blessings of this world with satisfaction; and he relied for future happiness on the promises of that divine revelation, the truth of which he had so strenuously laboured to evince. He consequently met the approach of death with firmness, comforted his afflicted family with the consolations of religion, and late on the evening of Saturday, May 25, 1805, he tranquilly breathed his last.

His remains were conveyed to Carlisle, attended by his two elder sons, and buried on Tuesday the 4th of June, in one of the aisles of the cathedral, by the side of his first wife.

Through life Dr. Paley, discharged his duties, as a minister of the gospel, with advantage to others, and with credit to himself. During, his residence in the university, he was a frequent preacher at St. Mary’s, and afterwards in the different churches of which he had the care. At Appleby he is said to have frequently preached from short notes; a practice rendered easy to him by his college lectures. His accent was indeed, provincial, his voice rough and inharmonious; but his manner was highly impressive, and his delivery marked by a peculiar force and energy of expression. Amongst those who prefer sense to sound, he was, at all times, a justly popular preacher; for his sermons were distinguished by those simple and perspicuous arguments, that original, terse, and satisfactory mode of explanation, that clear and pointed style, which uniformly bespoke the character of his mind.

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PETERBOROUGH is an ancient city and seat of a diocese, a parliamentary and municipal borough, polling place for the Northern division of the county, and is the head of the Liberty or soke of Peterborough, which is co-extensive with the hundred of Nassaburgh. The soke or liberty (A. S. soc. a place privileged to hold local courts) has, under the “Local Government Act, 1883,” been declared a separate “Administrative County,” distinct from the remainder of Northamptonshire, and occupies a peninsula bounded by the counties of Lincoln, Cambridge and Huntingdon, on the north, east and south respectively, and comprises, besides Peterborough, about thirty parishes. During the Saxon period the lord of the soke of Peterborough had the power or liberty of holding a court and administering justice within its boundaries, and this system was subsequently continued by the Abbots of Peterborough, who either enforced in person, as lords, the observance of the ancient socage laws and customs, or appointed a deputy to act for them. On the establishment of quarter sessions c. 23 Edw. III. (1349—50), the separate jurisdiction of the soke was still maintained as distinct from that of the county of Northampton; and, except for Parliamentary purposes and matters relating to the militia, it is entirely independent of that county. The soke has its own magistrates, who are appointed by a Lord Paramount, or Custos Rotulorum, acting under a commission of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, as well as under the ordinary commission, and the magistrates for the liberty-still retain the power of hanging a criminal in cases of murder, which in fact they exercised so late as the year 1812. The Acts 60 Geo. III. (1819—20) and 1 Geo. IV. c. 14 (1820—1), though giving the liberty Bench the power to commit (for murder only) to the county assizes, did not abridge their full rights of gaol delivery. The soke or liberty has also a separate rate, out of which all payments are made, and a separate police force, appointed by and under the control of the magistrates of the soke. In the provisions of the “Police Act, 1856” (19 & 20 Vict.), the “Weights and Measures Act, 1878” (41 & 42 Vict. c. 49), and the “Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878” (41 & 42 Vict. c. 74), the soke of Peterborough, like that of Ely, is in each instance treated as a separate county. Quarter sessions for the liberty are held at the Sessions Court in 4’eterborough, and petty sessions at the same place.

The city of Peterborough, which is the head of a poor law union and of a county court district, is mostly situated on the northern bank of the Nene, separating it from Huntingdonshire, 81 miles from London by the high road, and is at the junction of the four principal railways, 76 ¼ miles from London by the Great Northern, 102 ½ by the Great Eastern, 110 ¼ by the London and North Western, the Midland communicating through its Leicester and Peterborough branch; the Midland and Great Northern joint railway gives access to Lynn and Norfolk, and another line of the Great Northern extends through Spalding and Boston to Grimsby and Hull; the borough is also 12 miles south-east from Stamford, 18 north from Huntingdon, 30 from Boston, 30 from Lynn, 30 from Grantham, 30 from Cambridge, 30 from Market Harborough, 20 from Wisbech, 40 from Bedford, 43 from Lincoln, 45 from Leicester, 45 from Northampton, and 50 from Nottingham. The bridge over the Nene at the end of Broad Bridge street is a structure of iron, erected in 1872 at a cost of over £6,000, and replaced an old wooden bridge; a general survey of the river Nene was made about 1850, by eminent engineers, for the purpose of making it navigable for vessels of 80 tons burden from Wisbech, and for the better drainage of the meadows from the periodical floods to which they are subject. The borough, incorporated by charter, dated March 17th, 1874, is now divided into three wards and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors, the corporation acting also as the Urban Sanitary Authority. The city is well paved and is lighted with gas by a company from works in New road, and excellent water is obtained from works, the property of the corporation, at Braceborough. The municipal borough comprises parts of the parishes of St. John the Baptist, All Saints, St. Mark, St. Mary and St. Paul, the hamlets of Eastfield, Millfield and New England, and also part of Fletton and part of Woodstone, both transferred from Hunts to the soke of Peterborough by the “Local Government Act, 1888.” The parliamentary borough, extended in 1868, includes the whole of the municipal area and the outlying portions of the old parish of St. John the Baptist, including the hamlets of Langthorpe, Dogsthorpe and Newark. Peterborough formerly sent two members to Parliament, but under the provisions of the “Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885,” the number was reduced to one.

Peterborough was anciently annexed to the diocese of Lincoln, from which it was separated at the Dissolution and erected into a separate see, and the diocese comprises the counties of Northampton, Leicester and Rutland, divided into three archdeaconries. The ecclesiastical establishment consists of the bishop, dean, four residentiary canons, the archdeacons of Northampton, Leicester and Oakham, twenty-four honorary canons, three minor canons (one being precentor and sacristan) and the chancellor, all these offices being in the patronage of the bishop, except the deanery, which is in the gift of the Crown, and the minor canons appointed by the Dean and Chapter.

The Cathedral church of St. Peter, from which the town derives its name, was the conventual church of one of the wealthiest and most important Benedictine abbeys in England, founded, according to the Saxon Chronicle, in the year 655, by King Oswy, of Northumbria, and Peada, son of Penda, King of Mercia, and with the exception, perhaps, of Lichfield, the first resting place of Christianity in central England. The site chosen for the monastery was at a place called “Medeshamstede” (the home in the meadows), on a rising ground above the Nene, and the work of building was begun in the presence of both the founders, who are also said to have wrought at it with the grown hands. In 870, during an incursion of the Danes, the church was burnt and the monks slain, and the fabric remained in ruins until 966, when Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, with the help of King Edgar, rebuilt the whole as a Benedictine monastery, and the new structure having been completed and the village in which it stood surrounded by a wall of defence, the name of the place was changed in 970 to “Burgh,” and eventually from the dedication of the church to St. Peter, it was called, as now, Peterborough. The abbey, which was mitred, continued to be ruled by its abbots until the period of the Dissolution, when John Chambers, the 45th and last abbot, surrendered it to Henry VIII. March 1st, 1540, and received a pension of £260, but in the following year the monastic church was made the cathedral of a new diocese and endowed with a third part of the property of the abbey, amounting to £733 yearly (equal to about £14,600 of our money), the remainder being assigned to the king and the newly established chapter; Abbot Chambers was thereupon appointed the first bishop, and continued to hold the see until 1556.

The Cathedral consists of a Galilee porch, extending across the entire west front and flanked by spired turrets, western transepts with towers (one of which is unfinished), nave of eleven bays with aisles, great transepts of three bays in each arm with eastern chapels, apsidal choir of four bays with aisles and a retro-choir or eastern transept, formerly known as “the new work:” the foundation of the choir was laid 7th March, 1118, by Abbot John of Seez, and it was consecrated in 1143 by Robert de Chesney, bishop of Lincoln; the eastern chapels of the transepts were built in the same style by Abbot Martin of Bec, 1133—5; the remaining portion of the transepts and tower (late Norman) by William de Waterville, abbot, 1155—77, who also erected two bays of the nave and the cloisters: Benedict, abbot, 1177—93, completed the nave (Late Norman) and added the painted wood roof; the western transept (Transition Norman) was also probably his work: only one of the transeptal towers, that on the north-west, is complete; its upper stage (Early English) was added by Richard the Sacristan, before 1274, and till the close of the 18th century it had a wooden spire: in this tower hang 5 bells (including the great bell presented by Bishop Cumberland about 1700); in 1888—89 new bell frames were provided and the whole rehung, at a cost of £350, defrayed by H. P. Gates esq.: the west front, a magnificent and unrivalled work of the purest Early English style, with its original wooden doors, was probably the work of Abbot Zachary, 1200—10: the spire on the south-west tower (Early Decorated) was built about 1320; that on the north-west tower (Perpendicular) about 1470: and the church was consecrated October 4th, 1237: the central tower, bound together with wood and iron in 1593, and reconstructed a third times in 1895—5 was originally reared by Abbot de Waterville, but three of its four stages were removed, and the design remodelled about 1370: the retro-choir, or “new work,” now forming the eastern end of the cathedral, was begun by Abbot Ashton in 1438, and completed by Abbot Kirton about 1496: the entire church is constructed of Barnack stone, a close-grained and most durable freestone or shelly oolite from quarries near Stamford, which furnished large quantities of building material from the Roman period to the close of the 14th century.

The west front, described by Mr. Ferguson as “the grandest and finest in Europe,” consists of three majestic arches, 81 feet in height, supported by triangular shafted piers wholly detached from the western wall and surmounted by three gables, enriched with arcading and niches and each pierced by a circular or rose window; small spired turrets rise between the gables, and the whole is flanked on either side by square arcaded stair towers, crowned with spires and crocketed pinnacles; of the three great arches, that in the centre is narrower than the other two and is filled below with a fine porch or parvise of Late Decorated work, erected about 1370; it has an embattled gable and stair turrets on either side leading to an upper chamber now used as the chapter library, and lighted by a large Perpendicular window; an Early English vaulted roof connects the front screen with the actual west wall of the cathedral, which is arcaded in three stages, the lowest being pierced with three large and deeply recessed doorways, and the uppermost and loftiest tier by tall windows with traceried panelling between each; the whole width of the west front is 156 feet, and this also is the exact height from the ground to the top of the spires which terminate the western turrets.

The restoration of the west front and other portions of the cathedral, begun in 1895, was up to 1898 under the direction of the late J. L. Pearson R.A. the cathedral architect, and is now being continued by Mr. G. F. Bodley A.R.A., F.S.A.

The western transept, extending across the nave, projects one bay beyond the aisle on either side, its vaulting and arch mouldings are of Transition Norman character, much enriched; lofty arches, parallel with the aisles, support the western towers, but that on the south-west is still incomplete; the bay beyond the towers is finished on either side with a gable of remarkably beautiful design.

The nave is throughout Norman and nearly contemporary with that of Ely, completed in 1174, which it greatly resembles, but exceeds it in dimensions, although the great octagon at Ely gives to that cathedral an air of far greater stateliness and magnificence; the nave piers are generally cylindrical, with small shafts set against them, but some both at the east and west end vary from this design; all support well-moulded circular arches; the triforium consists of a range of wide circular arches, each embracing two smaller ones, divided by a single shaft; the clerestory has three circular arches in each bay, that in the centre rising above the others, with slender shafts supporting each; the south side of the nave is earlier than the north, and was no doubt finished first, in order to complete the cloister; between each bay single shafts rise from the floor to the roof, and these formerly upheld the rafters of the painted ceiling, which was originally flat, but on the reconstruction of the eastern and western arches of the tower in the 14th century it was made to assume its present angular coved form; this ceiling, which is undoubtedly of the 12th century, is painted in lozenge-shaped panels of unequal size in black and white, bordered with narrow lines of red, and displays within the lozenges figures of various royal and ecclesiastical personages, intermixed with very curious grotesques. The nave aisles have Norman vaulting, and below the windows, which are Late Early English insertions, runs an arcade of intersecting arches: the triforium is lighted by large Decorated windows, c. 1360: in the south aisle is a doorway opening into what was the ancient cloister, called “the abbot’s door.”

The central tower, the type of which it has been suggested still exists in the fine central tower at Castor, four miles from Peterborough, originally formed a lantern of four stages, but this structure subsequently proving too heavy for the loosely built piers to support, was taken down nearly as far as the crowns of the great arches and rebuilt about 1340, as a lantern of one stage only, in the Decorated style, with two windows on each, side, inclosed by traceried arcading; the eastern and western arches were at the same time rebuilt in a pointed form, but the north and south arches opening to the transept remained, as well as the Norman pillars and capitals; the vaulting of the lantern was of wood; and at the angles, rising considerably above the embattled parapet, were high turrets, added by Dean Kipling, about 1798, but removed in 1885, in order to be replaced by others in accordance with the original design.

Each arm of the great transept consists of three bays, with three tiers of circular-headed windows and a mural arcading beneath; the ceilings of both arms are of the same date as that of the nave, and are also painted in black and white, but in a plainer design; they possess, however, a higher interest in the fact that they remain in their original position and have never been raised; both portions of the transept have eastern aisles separated from it by massive piers alternately round and octangular; the eastern aisle of the north arm is also inclosed by oaken screen work of Perpendicular date, removed in 1734, from the nave, and the east wall below the windows is hung with tapestry of the 16th century; in the north wall a Norman doorway opens to a staircase leading to the roof; here also are some Early English stalls with canopies, and on the east side are two closed arches which once formed the entrance to the Lady chapel, a very beautiful building of the Early English period (1274) which rivalled that of Ely, but was demolished in the 17th century, in order to furnish materials for the repair of the cathedral; the eastern aisle of the south transept was divided into three chapels, dedicated respectively to St. Oswald, St. Benedict; and St. Kyneburga, by stone partitions, one of which retains a Norman arcade; the altar brackets on each side remain; in the west wall of this arm a doorway of the Decorated period gives access to a small building of Transition Norman character, now used as a music school and chapter house.

The heavy organ screen of church stone displaced on the recent removal of the tower was erected by Dean Monk before 1830 and displayed a large central recessed arch with elaborate feathering and triangular crocketed pediment, flanked by pinnacled buttresses, rising above a trefoiled parapet; all the ancient fittings of the choir, including the organ and a superb reredos of carved stone, once painted and gilt, and inlaid with silver plates, were destroyed by Cromwell’s troopers in 1643. The arrangement of the triforium and clerestory resembles almost exactly that of the eastern transept aisles: the apsidal presbytery, though necessarily altered in order to connect it with the later retro-choir, is still a very fine example of a Norman apse, and may be advantageously compared with that of Norwich; it was originally vaulted and divided from the choir by a Norman arch, of which only the responds now remain; a modern screen in the Decorated style extends round the back of the apse, and above are three tiers of windows, most of which, though retaining their circular headings, are filled with Decorated tracery, and have modern stained glass of very indifferent character; the roof of the apse is flat and decorated with a painting of “Our Lord in Majesty” surrounded by figures of saints and executed in the time of Dean Saunders; the roof of the choir is of painted wood, with pendent gilt bosses, and dates probably from the latter part of the 15th century; between the ribs of the groining are painted medallions inclosing figures of angels.

When the dangerous state of the great central tower was discovered in 1882, a contract was entered into in January, 1883, for its reconstruction, at an estimated cost of £13,073. The work of removal began on the 5th of April, 1883; and as the work proceeded it became evident that no expedient for patching up and trying to preserve the tower in its existing state would avail, lantern and piers being alike of the most wretched construction. At the foot of the south-eastern pier was found the remains of a Saxon building doubtless the church of the ancient monastery. The foundations of its choir and transepts have been uncovered. In the foundation or interior of the eastern pier, a few fragments of Saxon moulded work were found, and one very interesting and richly carved fragment of a presumed Roman pillar, with part of a dedicatory inscription; this may have been brought from “The Castles,” opposite Castor; but it is curious that few other fragments of Roman work have been discovered. The two western piers were also taken down and reconstructed. During the removal of the only remaining portions of the central tower, traces of a Norman arcade were discovered and the complete stonework of one of the Norman arches removed in the 14th century, with portions of others, was also found, and in consequence the late Mr. J, Loughborough Pearson R.A, the cathedral architect, submitted new designs, showing a restoration of the original Norman work, together with a lofty spire; these plans, though approved by the dean and committee, were rejected by the Chapter, who proposed as an alternative to insert the Norman arcade, but to retain the two 14th century arches of the tower. The matter was eventually submitted to the arbitration of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, after an exhaustive inquiry into the whole matter, recommended the reconstruction of the committee and a return to the original contract.

The lantern tower has therefore been rebuilt as before, but with foundations of the most solid character, based on the native limestone rock. The walls of the north and south transepts have also been substantially underpinned, their roofs and flat ceilings repaired with oak, and the flooring of the choir has been relaid and arranged for divine service. The wooden vaulting of the lantern has been richly decorated at the cost of the lata H. P. Gates esq. J.P. chapter clerk, who in addition to several other munificent gifts to the cathedral, also bore the expense of rehanging the bells.

The choir, after being closed for six years for thorough restoration, was reopened on Thursday, July 11th, 1889, having been temporarily fitted up so that service, which had been held in the nave since 1883, might be conducted in it. During 1888—9 the lantern tower was rebuilt, the north and south transepts underpinned, and three columns in the choir repaired, the work being carried out by the late Mr. J. L. Pearson R.A. Great care was taken to preserve the many discoveries which have been made during the progress of the work, one of the most interesting of these being the site of the cruciform Saxon church, which is enclosed within a crypt, under the south transept. During 1889—90 the internal masonry of the nave, aisles and western transepts was cleaned, at a cost of £1,110, borne by the Rev. Canon Argles; the stonework of the nave was also repaired and the dust in the triforium and clerestory consolidated. A memorial pulpit was at the same time erected in the nave to the late Canon James, and a vestry formed at the west end from the old woodwork of the choir. In the choir 14 new stalls, some being special gifts, were erected, and the cathedral was reopened 14 Oct. 1890, by the Lord Bishop of Peterborough. Since this date four additional choir stalls were added, during 1894—6, the gifts respectively of the Rev. S. A. Thompson Yates, the Rev. W. H. Cooper, T. A. Argles esq. and Mrs. Argles: a litany desk has also been given by Mrs. Riggs, and a throne for the bishop and a choir pulpit erected; the old organ, restored some years ago at an expense of nearly £1,200 by the late H. P. Gates esq. chapter clerk, was replaced in 1894 by one of newer design, the gift of an anonymous donor, at a cost, including case, of £4,400; a canopied reredos and baldachino of alabaster, presented at a cost of £1,307, by the family of Dr. Saunders, sometime Dean of Peterborough, and choir gates of fine handwork, the gift of Lady E. Villiers.

The retro-choir, which now forms the eastern end of the cathedral, and is entered from the choir asles, of which it is a continuation, forms a large parallelogram of five bays, in the Perpendicular style, and is, in effect, an eastern transept; its general details, and especially the beautiful fan-tracery of the roof, closely resemble those of King’s College chapel, Cambridge, but the very fine stained glass, which once filled the Windows, has wholly disappeared.

The principal monuments are the following:-In the south choir aisle, under a heavy Norman arch enriched with billet moulding is an effigy supposed to represent Abbot Andrew (1193—1200), vested and holding in the right hand his pastoral staff, in the left a book and treading on a dragon; here also are three other effigies of early abbots, all of local Alwalton marble and said to have been brought from the destroyed chapter house, which opened from the eastern alley of the cloisters; two of these are of Early Decorated character, and another mutilated figure is placed under the wall of the choir; under one of the arches at the back of the apse is a small monument of the early part of the twelfth century, consisting of an oblong mass of Barnack stone, bearing on each of the upright sides six much worn figures, under a circular-headed arcading, and apparently representing Our Lord and His Apostles; the sloping coped top of the stone is rudely carved with interlaced work, leafage and birds; on the adjoining wall is a monumental sarcophagus, with reclining effigy, to Thomas Deacon, 1721, founder of a charity school here and a benefactor to the city: westward is a shattered monument erected by Sir Humphrey Orm, kt. during his lifetime, for himself and his family, he died in 1721; in the north choir aisle is the effigy of an abbot of Early English date, and near it are memorials to Richard Cumberland D.D. bishop, 1691—1718; and White Kennett D.D. bishop, 1718—28; against the lower wall of the apse are placed together fragments of different monuments of various dates, the Perpendicular portions of which belonged to the shrine of St. Ebba, the instructress of St. Etheldred's of Ely; near the south doorway of the choir, a plain slab of black marble marks the spot where the remains of Mary, Queen Of Scots rested from July 30th, 1587, until their removal and re-interment in Westminster Abbey, October 11th, 1612; near the grave of the queen was that of John Chambers, last abbot and first Bishop of Peterborough, 1541—57, whose effigy has been replaced above it; beneath the north door, immediately opposite, still rest the remains of Queen Catherine of Arragon, who was interred here with much state; above the tomb was formerly a slab of blue stone, simply inscribed “Queen Catherine, A.D. 1536,” but in 1895 a slab of Irish marble was placed above the tomb, the cost being defrayed by the “Katherines” of England, Scotland, Ireland, America, and elsewhere; the inscription runs as follows: “Here lies the body of Katherine of Arragon, Queen of England, and first wife of Henry VIII. who died at Kimbolton Castle, on the 8th day of January, 1535—6, aged 49 years.” On the north side of the great west door hangs a portrait of “old Scarlett,” the sexton, who buried both queens, and died in 1594, aged 98; it has annexed twelve rhyming couplets and above are the arms of the see. Of the six stained windows of the apse, two are filled with the fragments spared by the Parliamentary soldiery, the rest are modern; the communion table cover, worked and presented by the ladies of Peterborough and their friends, was executed from a design by Mr. J. Preedy, architect, and appeared in the Exhibition of 1862; a handsome white-frontal, embroidered by Mrs. Argles, from a design by Mr. H. M. Townsend, architect, has been presented by the family of Canon Argles.

The best general view of the exterior of the cathedral is obtained from the north-east, where the whole length of the structure on that side is well seen, including the rich Perpendicular elevation of the retro-choir, the bold Norman apse towering above it, the tall gables of the transepts and the picturesque architectural group formed by the north transeptal tower and the fine spires and pinnacled turrets of the west front. The exterior of the apse is much enriched and at its junction with the choir has massive buttresses between each bay, on each trefoiled medallions inclosing demi-figures of kings and ecclesiastics adorn the Decorated parapet; the retro-choir has massive buttresses between each bay, on each of which is placed the seated figure of an apostle; the parapet, an elaborate and graceful work, bears the devices and initials of its builders and the monograms of Our Lord and the Virgin. The nave is 267 feet in length and 78 feet wide; the length of the choir is 117 feet; the extreme length of the building is 470 feet and the extreme width of the great transept 184 feet; the height from the floor to the painted ceiling is 80 feet and to the top of the lantern 135 feet; the breadth and height of the west front is 156 feet and the height of the lantern, tower, taken down in 1884, was 150 feet, this including the turrets, which however were not replaced.

The close, which surrounds the cathedral on the west and north, is approached from the west through a Norman gate-house, the work of Abbot Benedict, 1177—93; the gateway is vaulted and groined, and the sides are relieved by arcading; the west front has been faced with Perpendicular work and the upper story, originally a chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, has been similarly treated; the window above the arch on the east side once formed part of the shrine of St. Ebba, already referred to. So sacred was the site of this cathedral considered, that every visitor, from the king to the beggar, was compelled, before passing through the gateway into the precinct, to put off his shoes and enter barefooted, for a pilgrimage hither was regarded as equivalent to visiting “The threshold of the apostles at Rome:” near the gatehouse, on the north-east, stands the chancel of the Carnary or almonry chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, a building of the Transitional Decorated period, erected by Abbot Benedict and for some time used as a grammar school; it is now the museum of the Natural History, Scientific and Antiquarian Society; the nave was pulled down in 1405 by Abbot Genge, to build the parish church of St. John; on the south side of the western portion of the close, and some distance eastwards of the western gatehouse, is the gatehouse formerly leading to the abbot’s lodging, but now to the Bishop’s palace; this is a structure of Early Decorated character, of two stages, the lowermost having a large and fine recessed arch, over which is a square mullioned window; the entrance is flanked by square shafted turrets with embattled parapets: in the centre of the gable and in the second stage of each-turret is a canopied recess inclosing a statue: the knight’s chamber over the gateway was the work of Abbot Godfrey de Croyland, 1319: immediately south of the nave of the cathedral is the cloister garth, still bounded by walls on the west and south; some of the arches of the original Norman cloister remain in the western wall, which has four doorways, once opening into an undercroft; at the south-west angle is a fine Norman doorway and in the south wall one of Early English date, together with indications of a cloister of the same period; of the third cloister, erected during the Perpendicular period, on the site of the earlier buildings, and destroyed by the Cromwellian soldiery, some portions of its lavatories remain on the south side: at a short distance south-east of the cloister are still standing the arcades of the hall of the infirmary, built V Abbot John de Caleto, 1248—62; portions of the chapel of St. Laurence, which extended eastwards from the hall, the infirmarer’s table hall, adjoining the chapel on the north-east, and the sub-prior’s lodgings (now the archdeacon’s house), also remain; the prior resided in what is now the deanery. The cathedral burial ground on the north is beautifully planted with evergreen trees and shrubs; and here are buried George Davys D.D. bishop, 1839—64; Francis Jeune D.D. bishop, 1864—68; Wm. Connor Magee D.D., D.C.L, bishop, 1868—91, and for a few months Archbishop of York, d. 5th May, 1891; Marianne, wife of Bishop Davys, 1858; John James D.D. canon, 1868; William Cape M.A. honorary canon, 1874; Owen Davys M.A. archdeacon of Northampton, 1875; and the Rev. Payne Edmunds LL.B. 1861; between the buttresses of the eastern wall of the south transept are numerous coped tombstones, some of which have crosses on the upper slab, but no inscriptions are visible.

The cathedral registers date from 1615.

The city now consists for ecclesiastical purposes apart from the Cathedral precinct, of five parishes, viz. St. John the Baptist’s, St. Mark’s, St. Mary’s, Boongate, St. Paul’s, New England and St. Botolph’s, Longthorpe (the last four having been formed out of that of St. John the Baptist).

The church of St. John the Baptist, in the centre of the city, is a large and fine edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of an embattled chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles with chapels, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 8 bells and a clock with chimes: in the north aisle is a very beautiful monument in marble, by Flaxman, to William Squire, d. 1826: there are mural monuments in both aisles to the Wyldbore family, from 1748 to 1781: this church previous to 1402 stood some distance east of the cathedral, but owing to frequent inundations was rebuilt on its present site and the building finished in 1407: the present edifice was restored in 1883, when the galleries were removed, an open oak roof constructed, the walls of the clerestory rebuilt, the interior refitted throughout with open seats and various other improvements effected, at a cost of upwards of £11,000: the stained east window has been restored and there are stained windows at the east end of both aisles, presented by James Pears esq. at a cost of £925: two presented by the Broughton family, and three erected in 1896—7: the pulpit was given by Mr. John Thompson: there are sittings for 1,500 persons. The register dates from 1558, and, except from the years 1644 to 1658, is perfect and in good preservation and contains some curious memoranda. The living is a discharged vicarage, net yearly value £320, including 208 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough, and held since 1891 by the Rev. Lloyd Timothy Jones M.A. of Lincoln College, Oxford, and surrogate.

St. Mark’s parish was formed April 10, 1858. The church, on the Lincoln road and erected in 1856, is a building of stone, in the Early English style, from designs by Mr. Edward Ellis, architect, of Fenchurch street, London, and consists of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, south porch, large vestry or galilee at west end, a north-eastern tower with quatre-foiled parapet and spire and containing one bell: the stained west window displays the arms of twenty-eight of the English sees and was presented by the late G. H. Whalley esq.: the east window was the gift of Mr. John Thompson and in the south transept is a memorial window to the Rev. J. S. Percival, late vicar, and there are others: the reredos of stone and marble, and the sedilia and credence, erected in 1876, from designs by Mr. H. M. Townsend, diocesan architect, are also memorials to Mr. Percival: the marble steps of the chancel and two stained windows were presented by Miss Willoughby in 1891: there are sittings for 850 personal. The register dates from the year 1858. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300, with 2 ½ acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough, and held since 1894 by the Rev. Brooke de Malpas Egerton M.A. of Brasenose College, Oxford, and surrogate.

The parish of St. Mary, Boongate, created by an Order in Council, dated Sept. 1, 1857, embraces a large acreage. The church, of which the first stone was laid by the late Bishop of Peterborough on the 30th of May, 1859, is at the end of the New road, on a site presented by the late Hon. George Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and is a building in the Early English style, from designs by Ewan Christian esq. architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and consists of apsidal chancel, nave of four bays, aisles and a tower at the north-west angle with saddleback roof, containing a clock and 6 bells; there is another bell in a turret over the north door: six windows in the apse are stained; on the south side is a memorial window to the lata Earl Fitzwilliam, d. 4 Oct. 1857: and there is also a stained window in each aisle: a baptistery was erected in 1888, a brass ewer provided for the font and a brass and oak font cover presented by the vicar’s children: the church affords sittings for 550 persons. The register dates from the year 1860. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £300, including 3 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough, and held since 1895 by the Rev. Reginald Freetone Gould M.A. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford.

St. Paul's parish, formed Aug. 10, 1869, consists of MILLFIELD and New England. The church, in the hamlet of New England, erected in 1868, on a site given by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, is a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of apsidal chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, west porch and a low central tower, with pyramidal roof, containing one bell: the interior of the church was decorated about 1884 at the expense of the Rev. C. R. Ball M.A. vicar 1869—86: a stained east window was erected in 1892: there are 400 sittings. The register dates from the year 1868. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £261, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough, and held since 1886 by the Rev. Arthur Fairclough Maskew M.A. of the University of Oxford.

All Saints’ is an ecclesiastical parish formed in 1891; the church in Park road, erected in 1886, and enlarged in 1894 at a total cost of about £5,000, is a building of stone, in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle and porch, and affords sittings for 500 persons. The register of baptisms dates from the year 1887; marriages 1891. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £100, in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Charles Richard Ball M.A. of Christ’s college, Cambridge, hon. canon of Peterborough, and rural dean of Peterborough (first portion).

The Catholic church, dedicated to the Holy Family and St. Peter, in Queen street, erected in 1856, was disused in 1896, when a new church, dedicated to “All Souls,” was erected in Park road, at a cost of £4,000.

Christ church (Reformed Episcopalian), in Russell street, was erected in 1880, and seats 300 persons.

The Baptist chapel, Queen street, erected in 1870 at a cost of £4,500, is a spacious edifice of brick with stone dressings, seating 800 persons.

The Wesleyan chapel, Wentworth street, erected in 1874, is an edifice of white brick, ornamented with courses of red brick and stone dressings: at three angles of the building are towers with pyramidal stone spires and pinnacles: there are sittings for 1,000 persons. The Wesleyan Hall in Eastgate (formerly a Congregational chapel) was enlarged in 1896, and has 200 sittings.

The Congregational chapel, Westgate, erected in 1859, is an edifice of brick with stone dressings in the Gothic style. The double arched entrance portico is flanked by buttresses with spirelets, and the angles of the front are surmounted by pinnacles, each side of the building being relieved by five gables: over the portico is a memorial window, erected to Mr. and Mrs. William Lound, the former of whom died in 1873: there is another stained window to the Rev. A. Murray, minister here 28 years, d. 1882, and one commemorating the rebuilding in 1891.

Trinity Congregational chapel, Priestgate, built about 1864, occupies the site of a mansion, the stone frontage of which, surmounted by a lantern tower and spire, has been incorporated with the edifice: the chapel affords 600 sittings.

There is a Congregational mission hall, in Field street, with 200 sittings.

The Brethren have a meeting room in Park road.

The Calvinistic chapel, Chapel street, erected in 1855, has 300 sittings; a Sunday school was added in 1891.

The Christadelphians meet in the Boroughbury hall, built in 1882, and seating 200 persons.

The Salvation Army barracks, King street, were erected in 1891, and will hold 700 persons.

There is a Primitive Methodist chapel in New road, built in 1862, and one in Cobden street, each seats 650 persons.

The Free Methodist chapel, Boroughbury, erected in 1866 has 350 sittings. The Baptist chapel, Harris street, and Sergent street, built in 1896, will hold 400 persons.

The cemetery, in Eastfield road, covers 9 acres, and was formed in 1850 as provided by the Peterborough Improvement and Cemetery Act of that year: it has two mortuary chapels and is under the control of a board consisting of the churchwardens of St. John’s parish, and the overseers of the poor of Peterborough for the time being, and 7 members of the corporation.

The Guildhall, in the Market place, is an ancient building of stone, erected in 1671; the upper portion, which rests on an arcade of round arches, is used by the Corporation for their official business; the open space below serves as a butter and poultry market.

The Post Office, in Cumbergate, erected in 1874, is a structure of white brick with stone facings in the Gothic style.

The Corn Exchange, erected on the site of the old theatre in Church street and opened in 1848, is a building in the Italian style, from designs by Mr. Hemming, of Birmingham, and comprises a spacious market room, available also for public meetings and lectures, and holding 1,000 persons; in 1893 the Corn Exchange Company purchased from the feoffees of the town chanties the house known as “The Sexton’s house,” in Exchange street, for the purpose of completing the Exchange buildings. The old tithe barn of the Abbey on the Lincoln road is now a mere skeleton, the timbering only remaining; the material of the building has been used in the erection of villa residences in front of the old site.

The City Police Station is in Milton street, Newtown, and the police station for the Liberty of Peterborough in Thorpe road.

The Sessions house, formerly the Liberty Gaol, on the Thorpe road, but now used only for the trial of prisoners, is a building of stone in the Norman style, erected in the year 1842, at a cost of £12,000, from the designs of Mr. W. J. Donthorn, architect, of Hanover street, London; the front portion comprises the sessions court with the magistrates’ room, jury room and clerks’ offices.

The Law Courts, on the New road, erected in 1873, form a plain structure of brick; the county court is held here and the court of probate; the offices of the inland revenue, and surveyor of taxes are also in the same building.

Boroughbury Hall, in Boroughbury, a building erected in 1882, is used as a place of worship by the Christadelphians, as well as for lectures and classes &c. and will hold about 200 persons.

The Temperance Hall, an iron structure in Lincoln road, erected in 1883, will hold 375 persons.

The Peterborough Book Society, formed in 1730 for the circulation of modern literature, occupies rooms in the Cathedral Gateway.

The Northamptonshire Royal Engineer Volunteers have their headquarters in St. Leonard street.

The Drill Hall, in Queen street, erected in 1868, is a plain edifice of brick belonging to the G and H companies. 1st Volunteer Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment and is used for concerts and lectures; it will seat 800 persons.

The Theatre Royal, situated in the Broadway, was erected in 1877; it will seat 1,000 persons, and is the property of Mr. W. H. Vernon.

The Public Library, established in 1893, at the Fitzwilliam Hall, contains about 4,600 volumes; there are public reading and news rooms &c. The school of science, art and technology in the Minster precincts, was opened in 1882, and consists of 9 class rooms and two workshops. A number of free studentships are offered annually by examination; the present number of students is about 300.

A fountain, the gift of Mrs. Argles, is now (1898) being erected in the Market place.

The trade of this city chiefly consists of corn, malt, coal and timber, the manufacture of agricultural implements, elastic web, and boots and shoes, and the transit of live and dead stock and agricultural produce to London and elsewhere by the various railways; on the outskirts of the South Ward are very extensive brick works, and a large and increasing trade in bricks is here carried on. The market days are Wednesday for live stock, of which there is always an extensive supply, and Saturday for live and dead stock and general produce. The cattle market, for which an Act of Parliament was obtained in May, 1863, occupies an area of 5 acres and was opened in May, 1867, under the management of the Peterborough Cattle Market Company Limited; it holds cattle, 104 calves, 4,448 sheep and lambs, 520 pigs, and 145 horses, together with market house and the necessary offices for salesmen. The market was purchased by the Corporation from the Company in 1892, and is now under their direct management. The fairs are St. Peter’s, on the 2nd Tuesday and Wednesday in July for wood, cattle and horses, held in the Cattle market, Market place and Bridge street; and Bridge fair the 1st Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in October, held in some fields on the south side of the river, is for wood, beasts, sheep, horses, stock and general purposes.

The principal hotels are the Angel, in Narrow Bridge street; the Grand, in Wentworth street; the Great Northern, opposite the Great Northern railway station, and the Golden Lion, Bridge street.

Three weekly newspapers and one evening paper are published in the town, the “Peterborough and Huntingdonshire Standard,” the “Peterborough Advertiser,” the “Peterborough Express,” and the “Peterborough Evening News.”

A park of twenty-one acres was laid out in 1877, on the north side of the town, and is the property of the Peterborough Land Co. Limited; it is open to subscribers only.

The Public Dispensary and Infirmary, in Priestgate, was originally established in 1815; the late buildings consisted of a mansion, presented by Charles William, 5th Earl Fitzwilliam, and converted into an infirmary in 1848. The building was destroyed by fire in 1884, but was reconstructed, at a cost of £4,500, from designs by Mr. H. M. Townsend, architect, and now contains 50 beds; various additions and improvements have been made, at a cost of £1,800; the number of in-patients for 1897 was 427, and together with out-patients, a total of 3,560 patients were treated and discharged during the year. The institution is supported by subscriptions.

The almshouses for the poor comprise 44 in Cumbergate called the “town estates,” and 26 in Westgate, known as “Wortley’s,” with an income of about £400 a year. The almshouses, as well as the general charities, which afford annually about £15 for bread and fuel; £250 for distribution in money, and £480 for the general uses of the poor, are under the direction and management of a self-elected body of feoffees. The inmates of the almshouses are admitted irrespective of sex and receive about 40s. each yearly from the charities. There are also eight almshouses in the Minster precincts, which are part of the Cathedral establishment, and are supported from its endowments; they are occupied by eight aged women, each of whom receives £6 yearly.

Westwood House is the residence of Mrs. English.

The Bishop of Peterborough is lord of the manor of Boroughbury and the Dean and Chapter are lords of the manor of Peterborough. The Bishop, the Dean and Chapter and George Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam esq. J.P. of Milton house, are the chief landowners.

The neighbourhood of Peterborough is generally spoken of as being situated upon the lower oolites, and although the hard rock on which the soil of the district rests is invariably one of the members of the oolitic foundation, the subsoil in the neighbourhood of the town is gravel, in masses interspersed with layers of fine sand, varying from a few inches to six or eight feet in thickness. Eastward of the town the fen lands appear, in some instances being covered by patches of gravel and in all cases resting on a tenacious blue clay, called “Oxford clay,” of considerable thickness, the peaty soil above it varying in different localities from one to twelve feet; while not unfrequented, before coming to the Oxford clay, two layers of peat are found with a stratum of brown clay interposed between them, showing that during the formation of the fens in this district the land was subject to incursions of the sea. In the town itself the gravel beds rest on a series of shales, clays and compact blue limestone, reaching to a depth of 60 feet and resting on a bed of white sand, which is the uppermost member of the Great Oolite. The beds above comprehend the cornbrash and forest marble series, the different layers of which are of varying and uncertain thickness and, as it were, dovetailed into each other in such a manner as to render the sinking of wells for a permanent supply of water a matter of considerable difficulty and uncertainty, so much sc that in one position water may be obtained at less than 20 feet, whereas only a few yards distant it may be requisite to continue the sinking to more than double that depth, nor can any reliable estimate be formed as to the dip or direction of the retentive rock.

The area of the old parish of St. John the Baptist, now known as Peterborough Within, is 6,203 acres; rateable value, £103,522; the population in 1891 was 23,502; the rateable value of the remainder of the parish known as Peterborough Without is £9,386; the area of Minster Close precincts parish is 47 acres; rateable value, £1,951; the population in 1891 was 160.

New Fletton and Woodstone within the area have been transferred, under the “Local Government Act, 1888,” from Hunts to Northants (soke of Peterborough).

Quarter Sessions are held the thursday next after December 28th, March 31st, June 24th & October 11th, at 10.30 a.m. Petty Sessions are held every Wednesday at the Sessions house, Thorpe road, at 11 a.m.

Volunteers

Northamptonshire Royal Engineers (1st) Volunteer (attached to 2nd Tower Hamlets), head quarters & orderly room, St. Leonard st.

1st Volunteer Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment (G & H Companies), head quarters. Drill hall, Queen street.

PETERBOROUGH UNION

Board day, every Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Board room, Broadway.

The Union comprises the following places:-in Northants-Ailsworth, Borough Fen, Castor, Deeping Gate, Etton, Eye, Glinton, Gunthorpe, Helpston, Marholm, Maxey, Newborough, Northborough, Paston, Peakirk, Peterborough Within, Peterborough Without, Precincts Minster Close, Sutton, Upton, Walton & Werrington; in Hunts-Alwalton, Caldecot, Chesterton, Denton, Farcet, Fletton Rural, Fletton Urban, Folksworth, Glatton, Haddon, Holme, Morborne, Orton Longueville, Orton Waterville, Stanground (partly in Cambs), Stilton, Washingley, Water Newton, Woodstone Rural, Woodstone Urban & Yaxley; in Cambs-Thorney; & Crowland in Lincolnshire. The population of the union in 1891 was 45,342; area, 101,636 acres; rateable value in 1897, £301,071.

Clerk to the Guardians & Assessment Committee, William Pettit, Union offices, Broadway.

The Workhouse on the Thorpe road & about half a mile west of the city, erected in 1836 at a cost of £4,000, is a plain, substantial building of brick & will hold 365 inmates; a fever ward, containing 20 beds, was added in 1870.

Places of Worship, with times of Services

Cathedral Church of St. Peter, 11 a.m. & 3.30 & 7 p.m.; daily, 10 a.m. & 5.30 p.m.; sat. 10 a.m. & 3 p.m.; holy communion every Sunday at 8.15 & 11 a.m. & saints’ days, 8.15 a.m.

St. John Baptist Church, Rev. Lloyd Timothy Jones M.A. vicar; Rev. P. J. Richards M.A. & Rev. F. D. Binyon M.A. curates; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; daily, 8 a.m. & 7.30 p.m. Litany, wed. & fri. 12 noon.

All Saints’Church, Park road. Rev. Charles Richard Ball M.A. vicar; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

St. Mark, Lincoln rd. Rev. Brooke de Malpas Egerton M.A. vicar; Rev. Spencer Richards Pocock A.K.C. & Rev. A. Kerr M.A. curates; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; daily at 8 a.m. & 7.30 p.m.

St. Mary’s, Boongate, Rev. Reginald Freestone Gould M.A. vicar; Rev. Arthur Hatfield Birks M.A. curate; 8 & 11 a.m. & 3 & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m.

St. Botolph, Longthorpe, Rev. Thomas Kynaston Gaskell, M.A. vicar.

St. Paul, New England, Rev. Arthur Fairclough Maskew M.A. vicar; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; daily at 9.30 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Mission Room, Cromwell road, in connection with St. Mark’s, 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

St. Barnabas Mission Church, Gladstone street, in connection with St. Mark’s, 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Mission Room, Eastgate, in connection with St. Mary’s, 11 a.m., & 6.30 p.m.

Reformed Episcopalian (Christ Church), Russell street. Rev. C. Frew; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m.

All Souls, Catholic, Queen street. Very Rev. William Canon Moser, priest; Rev. Dudley Cary Elwes, assistant priest; 8.30 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; daily, 8 a.m.

Baptist, Queen street. Rev. Thomas Barrass; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. wed. & sat. 7.30 p.m.

Baptist Chapel, Harris street & Sergeant street; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m. Brethren, Park road; 6.30 p.m.

Calvinistic, Chapel street; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Christadelphian, Boroughbury hall; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Congregational (Trinity), Priestgate, Rev. Robert Edgar Clegg; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. & wed. 7.30 p.m.

Congregational, Westgate, Rev. William John Butler; 11 a.m. & 3 & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m.

Primitive Methodist, New road, Rev. J. Filling & Rev. Wm. Scruby; 10.45 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; tues. 7.30 p.m.

Primitive Methodist, Cobden street. Rev. Henry Carden & Rev. Richard Baxter; 10.45 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

United Methodist Free Church, Boroughbury, Rev. George Lord; 9 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. 8 p.m. & thurs. 7.30 p.m.

Wesleyan, Wentworth street. Rev. Arthur Shipham & Rev. John Thomas East; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. wed. & sat. 7.30 p.m.

Wesleyan, Eastgate, Rev. Arthur Shipham & Rev. John Thos. East; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. tues. & thurs. 7.30 p.m.

Salvation Army, Citadel in King street, 11 a.m. 3 & 6.30 p.m.

Congregational Mission Hall, Field street, 6.45 p.m.

Mission Hall (undenominational), New England, Peterborough, sun. 3 & 7 p.m.; daily, 7.30 p.m.

Schools

The King's (Grammar) School, founded by Henry VIII. & now under the control of the Dean and Chapter, was reconstituted in 1882 under the Endowed Schools Act as a first grade Public School. There are ten open scholarships of the value of £10 each, & three exhibitions to St. John’s College, Cambridge, founded in 1635 by Edmund Mountstephen, of Paston, of the annual value of £30, tenable for four years. The school, which from its foundation had been conducted in the building known as “St. Thomas a Becket’s Chapel,” in the Minster precincts, was removed in 1886, under a scheme approved by the Charity Commissioners, to Park road, where ground was purchased & new buildings, including a master’s house &c. were erected in 1885, from designs by Mr. J. R. Naylor, architect, of Derby, at a cost of £9,000. The present number of scholars is about 60, but the building will hold 140. The endowment amounts to about £400 yearly; the Dean & Chapter are the governors.

Deacon’s School, originally founded by Thomas Deacon in 1719, for clothing & educating 20 poor boys, has been reconstituted under the Endowed Schools Act of 1869 & 1874, & was re-opened in 1881 as a Middle Class school. The scheme provides for three exhibitions of £20 a year each, tenable for three years at some place of higher education, for pupils at this school, & for twenty Deacon scholarships to be competed for by boys attending the elementary schools of the Peterborough school district; each scholarship entitles the holder to exemption from payment of all tuition fees & to a money payment of £2 a year. The present buildings in Deacon street were erected in 1882—3, at a cost of about £4,000, for 120 boys; average attendance, 100. The science & art classes conducted in this school are recognised by the Department at South Kensington, and by the Peterborough County Council. There are twenty scholarships of £2 each, giving exemption from school fees & tenable for 3 years, open by competitive examination to boys attending the elementary schools of the Peterborough school district. The school is under the control of a Board of Governors, six of whom are elected by the feoffees of the town charities & four by the corporation: the vicar of St. John is an ex-officio governor.

St. Peter’s Training College for schoolmasters, opened in 1889, was enlarged in 1896 by the addition of a science laboratory & workshops & lecture & recreation rooms; the present building, occupying a site of two acres, was designed by the late Sir G. G. Scott R.A. & finished in March, 1864, at a cost of £5,000; it will hold 50 students, & is intended for the supply of the dioceses of Peterborough, Ely & Lincoln, & is governed by a committee of 20 members elected annually from these dioceses in equal proportions of laymen & clergy: the Bishops of Peterborough, Ely & Lincoln & the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge are patrons of the institution & the Bishop of Peterborough is its visitor.

St. Peter’s College Practising School (boys), New road, for 336 boys; average attendance, 125; assisted by the college students & two certificated masters.

School of Science & Art, Minster precincts, Edward Worthington, master.

St. John’s Middle Class (girls), Bishop’s road, erected in 1896, for 307 girls; average attendance, 141.

St. John’s National (boys), Albert place, built in 1860, for 280 boys; average attendance, 277; & for 220 girls; average attendance, 150.

St. Mark’s (infants), Cromwell road, erected in 1874, for 200 children; average attendance, 136.Stolen from Fore bears

St. Mark’s (boys), Gladstone street, erected in 1897, for 300 children; average attendance, 250.

St. Mark’s National (girls & infants), Gladstone street, opened in 1878, enlarged in 1885, for 552 children; average attendance, 262 girls & 173 infants.

National (central), Nelson street (boys & girls), founded in 1824, for 245 boys & 250 girls; average attendance, 205 boys & 171 girls.

National (mixed), Millfield, for 174 children; full average attendance.

National (girls & infants), New England, erected by the Great Northern Railway Co. for 900 children; average attendance, 250 girls & 220 infants; the school has a subsidy of £90 yearly from the company & other benefactions, giving a total value of £200.

National (boys), erected in 1891, by the Great Northern Railway Co. for 360 children & has a full average attendance.

National (mixed), Newark, erected in 1873, at a cost of £400, for 80 children; average attendance, 58.

St. Mary’s (infants), New road, erected in 1858, for 324 children; average attendance, 254.

Longthorpe Parochial (mixed), opened in 1888, for 80 children; average attendance, 36.

British (boys), New road, erected in 1859, for 422 boys; average attendance, 422.

British (girls), Westgate, opened in 1863, for 240 girls; average attendance, 218.

British (mixed), Millfield, enlarged in 1888 & 1893, for 260 children; average attendance, 207.

British (infants), Westgate, opened in 1891, for 166 children; average attendance, 143.

British (mixed), Cobden street, opened in 1880, for 220 children; average attendance, 125.

Catholic (mixed), Manor House street, erected in 1892, for 150 children; average attendance, 58.